(NECN) – A young man from Stoughton, Mass. is facing charges after a crash that killed a Curry College nursing student.

Police say 24-year-old Sean Jackman was drunk and speeding when he hit a tree in Canton early Saturday morning.

Jackman was arraigned from his hospital bed at Boston Medical Center where his condition has been updated to fair. Stoughton District Court Judge Richard Savignano imposed $500,000 cash bail on Jackman.

We have learned from the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office that the case was transferred over to the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest because Jackman had a summer internship with the NDAO in 2006 and is also nephew of a former employee.

Considered a popular role model by many, Evan Bard died just before midnight Saturday. Police say her ex-boyfriend, Jackman, was behind the wheel, highly intoxicated, when he lost control on Bolivar Road. The two had been coming from a wedding in Stoughton. Friends say Jackman was the best man.

Bard was in the front passenger's seat and was pronounced dead at the scene. Jackman was alive but barely conscious, and smelled of alcohol. He was transported to Boston Medical Center, where he was questioned by police the next day.

Jackman would not answer questions and told police that he retained an attorney, and he was subsequently placed under arrest and told he was not free to leave the hospital.